he's like the grover norquist of the senate. he's the guy the other republican senators are really afraid of. and that is because more so than anyone else and definitely more than any other republican politician, demint is behind the tea party strategy of purifying the republican party in the cleansing fire of party primaries. demint created this pac called the senate conservativist fund, a pac he made into a super pac which makes it more super and exists to help conservative republicans beat other republicans. "since 2009 demint has raised more than $17 million to promote promising candidates in an effort to remake the senate not just in a republican image but in a diehard conservative one." the image of jim demint, even. and he has often done it by going to electoral war with his own party leadership. in the 2012 midterm elections demint threw his weight behind marco rubio in the republican primary for florida's senate race. despite the fact that the national republican senatorial committee and republican leader mitch mcconnel